Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus was one of the true greats, creating a new kind of jazz that knitted a traditional style built on gospel music with a very modern, free-form approach that effectively defied categorization; but had a huge impact and influence on both his contemporaries and subsequent generations. Born at an army base in Arizona, Mingus was primarily raised in Los Angeles, growing up listening to church music, although his most influential hero was Duke Ellington. He studied trombone and cello and initially had aspirations to specialise in playing classical cello but moved on to double bass, joining Buddy Collette's swing band. Even in his teens Mingus was writing complex pieces, merging jazz and classical music and he quickly built a big reputation playing bass with clarinetist Barney Bigard. In the 1940s he toured with Louis Armstrong and went on to play with other greats, like Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. He broke new ground with Jazz Workshop, a fluid ensemble of free jazz musicians who played improvisational music which took jazz in a new direction and recorded the important album, Mingus Ah Um (1959). Other major Mingus albums include Pithecanthropus Erectus (1956), The Clown (1957), Mingus Dynasty (1959), Pre-Bird (1960), The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady (1963), Mingus Plays Piano (1963), Mingus Moves (1973) and Cumbia And Jazz Fusion (1976). Suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease, he died in 1979 at 56.